Why you should stop using paper towels right NOW

Do you ever go and buy a whole huge package of paper towels from Costco and after a couple weeks you start asking yourself who is eating them? Yes, I did that too! Paper towels are a new-age convenience that we got so cozy and used to that we tend not to realize how much waste they produce. By waste I mean: a whole loooot of trash and plastic wrap packaging and also, a waste of your precious MONEY! Keep reading to find out Why you should stop using paper towels right NOW .

You might think that paper is not that bad, because it’s bio degradable and natural, BUT you will be amazed by these incredible facts and how using them will affect the world our kids will grow in.

• To make one ton of paper towels 17 trees and 20,000 gallons of water are polluted.
• In the U.S. we currently use more than 13 billion pounds of paper towels each year and that number is growing steadily. This equals more than 3,000 tons of paper towel waste in the U.S. alone.
• Globally, discarded paper towels result in 254 million tons of trash every year.
• As many as 51,000 trees per day are required to replace the number of paper towels that are discarded every day.
• If every household in the U.S. used just one less 70-sheet roll of paper towels, that would save 544,000 trees each year.
• If every household in the U.S. used three less rolls per year, it would save 120,000 tons of waste and $4.1 million in landfill dumping fees.

Okay, now that I made you all feel guilty about yourselves (I know I felt horrible when I realized how much I had been wasting) we can move along to finding solutions.

Here is a simple 3 Step Quick action Plan so you can stop or dramatically reduce your paper towel usage:

1.Stop buying the big Jumbo size packages

I know Costco has very tempting prices-even at paper towels-I’ve been there. But having your home loaded with paper towel rolls will only make you use more! Instead, buy a 2 pack and use it for a couple months or a year-Yes I know how crazy this might sound to some of you.

2. Buy or make cloth napkins and kitchen towels

This doesn’t have to be a huge investment. Ross, Target, Amazon- they all sell really cheap cotton napkins and kitchen towels that you can wash over and over again and reuse as much as you want. Also, realistically speaking, you won’t throw a cloth napkin in the dirty basket after wiping your mouth once with it!

3.Hide the remaining paper towel rolls

Now you might be reading these statistics and thinking “Oh, this really sounds like a huge waste and a lot of pollution. I’ll stop using paper towels after I finish these 297r746 I just bought!”

Don’t let yourself fall into that trap because by the time the paper towels finish, you will even forget the reason why you wanted to stop using them and you will for sure fall back into habit.

If you are the only one in the house who wants to stop using paper towels, then the easiest thing to do for yourself and others is to hide them! Put them somewhere out of reach, where only you have access from time to time, when you cook something really greasy and need paper to drain it.

This is such a small change we can make in our lives that will have a HUGE impact on the environment and our kids future. So let’s stop being the people that say things are lost, the situation is too bad and the environment can’t be changed when we can be those who try their best to do their fare share !

This 5 minute video of a TED talk held by Joe Smith presents a super easy way of saving 571 230 000 000 pounds paper by only using one paper towel to wipe your hands in public restrooms.

And that’s pretty much it! It’s all in our hands and we’re fooling ourselves if we think it’s not!

What about you? What strides have you been doing lately to make your life healthier and more eco-friendly? Was it a hard transition?

With love,

Delia

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Comments

I love this article. We very rarely use paper towels or napkins in our house. We have a few rolls right now but that is only because they were given to us. I actually keep a big basket under our kitchen counter filled with and assortment of washcloths, old pieces of cotton cloth, and un-paper towels I have made. We use these for napkins, cleaning up faces, cleaning up spills, ect. We also use cloth diapers which saves both money and the environment.

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Mother of daughters and wife. I am passionate about helping you turn your way of living into a natural and inspiring one. From healthy and yummy cooking to green cleaning tips, waste-free lifestyle guidance, day to day inspiration, crafts and kid-friendly activities, I've got you covered! Add in some mom-centered advice and some Christian orthodox faith and you will want to come back! Read More…

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3 weeks agoby delia.nutshellGetting rid of yet another round of plastic packaging as my family and I ease into a plastic free life! I am so excited and challenged to make this huge change in our lives and I am looking forward to going as close as possible to a #zerowaste lifestyle. Already

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